Q434 was heading north past CP5 on the River sub yesterday morning. The EDD at mp 7.2 reported "no defects... total axle count 738... train speed 14". Wow! that sounds like a really long train - the most axles I've ever heard on the River sub. But it wasn't as long as I might have thought - some of the consist was trash containers on articulated flats, so the axle count will be somewhat higher than expected - unless you want to count each section of an articulated set as one car. Well, anyway, the train had only 2 locos. I didn't look closely enough at them to know what model they were, but six axles each for sure. I started to count cars, but lost track after 80 cars or so, and that was only about half the train. So I think it was at least 150 cars.There was talk on the radio about a non-com issue with one of the locos, but that cleared up by the time the train reached auto 13. Dispatcher said he would try to give the train a clear shot to SK.

By the time the train reached the EDD at mp 20.5, it had reached 28 mph, but had apparently gained one axle. The detector reported 739 axles. Interesting - no way for a train to have an uneven number of axles - right? unless it's a special piece of equipment. So I guess the detector at 20.5 glitched.

If the axle counts at MP 7.2 and 20.5 didn't coincide, and the train made no setoffs or pickups in between, there would have been a glitch regardless of whether both counts showed even numbers. Things that aren't supposed to happen but do ...